


Burning Bonfires

by Gray_Skies_Rising



Series: Living in the Dawn and Dusk [9]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Court of Owls, Dark Batfamily (DCU), Dick Grayson was a Talon, Gen, Good Bro Cassandra Cain, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, dealing with mental spirals, phantom pains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24511978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Skies_Rising/pseuds/Gray_Skies_Rising
Summary: Tim and Dick always seem to spiral together. Either together or one right after the other.It was terrifying to watch.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Dick Grayson, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Dick Grayson & Cassanda Cain & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson
Series: Living in the Dawn and Dusk [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735045
Comments: 11
Kudos: 290





	Burning Bonfires

**Author's Note:**

> TW: mental spiraling, phantom pains, mentions/references to the court of owls, mention of night terrors and scars caused by them
> 
> Please tell me if I missed any!
> 
> I wrote this at like midnight, so I got most of what I wanted out of it but not everything. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Tim and Dick always seem to spiral together. Either together or one right after the other.

It was terrifying to watch.

Jason once told Cass about a theory of his. He theorized that they had some kind of telepathic connection to each other. Some days, when Tim and Dick were practically speaking in each other's places, Cass almost believed it. This telepathic connection, however, did not translate to working together.

Cass loved her brothers, she really did. Sure they were a tad bit more violent than your average American family, but they still were a huge step up from her old one. Plus, they tended to hold back around her, not going at their full power just because she asked them to. She appreciated that.

Having said that, Tim and Dick working together is water and oil.

Dick is constantly moving, running from things only he can see.

Tim is always still, waiting for his fate like a condemned man at the gallows.

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object. (Steph said that that was an important metaphor for this family.)

It itches.

That's what Tim says.

(Itches like Jason's arms, like her throat.)

It itches so much that all he wants to do is scratch his eyes out. 

He's afraid.

Afraid that even when his eyes are gone, he'll continue to scratch. He'll scratch and scratch until nothing is left but an empty head.

A shell of who he once was.

Alive but dead.

Cass doesn't like to dwell on it. 

Dick says he's so cold it's burning.

He also says he's so hot that he's shivering. 

He says it feels like all of his nerves are freezing and thawing randomly one by one but also all at once.

He feels hollow.

He is hollow.

Dick says he never felt more like the corpse he is then when he's spiraling.

Dead but alive.

Cass didn't like to think about that either.

Steph says seeing them spiral is like watching a car crash, Cass disagrees. She thinks it's like watching a bonfire.

Memorizing and bright, but when you got to close, you got burned.

Cass may not have any physical scars from the spirals, as she does with her and Jasons night terrors, but she feels every _wrong_ moment like a blow to the stomach.

Dick still moves with the grace that he always does, but it feels as if they aren't _his_ movements. As if he's just a puppet on a talented master's strings. When he fights, he seems to forget that he sword and knives now belong in Damian's hands and his claws no longer fit his fingers. He covers his face to muzzle himself.

If it's even possible, Tim becomes even more still and quiet. His eyes no longer hold any light of life. Only a cold calculated intelligence that ties up all loose ends before anything can unravel. His words are sharp and to the point, no longer the long ramblings of her brother. 

It makes her sick just to look at them.

She sits with them anyway.

She brings a cold compress to numb Tim's itching eyes and she asks if he can read his favorite novel to her.

She teaches Dick the new move shes learning in ballet and holds long conversations in ASL with him.

She helps them regain the control they are losing.

She just hopes that one day, she won't have to.

**Author's Note:**

> Please drop a comment telling me what you think!


End file.
